Back To Prabhupada, Issue 48, Summer 2015
TP is continually highlighting two opposing themes:
1) ISKCON's leadership agreeing with the arguments of the IRM.
2) ISKCON's leadership speaking nonsense.
1) exists because the truth is hard to deny no matter how hard one may try, and also as a "bait and switch" device to show how "Prabhupada-friendly" they are to attract recruits and followers. 2) exists because no matter how much Srila Prabhupada may be glorified and given a "position" in ISKCON as the "Founder-Acarya", "siksa-guru" and other titles, those with guru desires must still manufacture reasons as to why they are needed 'as good as God' diksa gurus instead of Srila Prabhupada. We have exposed many of these concocted reasons in previous BTP issues. Here we expose yet another one of these reasons, concocted out of thin air for the express purpose of falsely justifying a need for such unneeded, usurping diksa guru successors to Srila Prabhupada.
It is claimed that GBC-authorised gurus are required because they perform the essential function of "connecting" an ISKCON member to Srila Prabhupada. An example of this is GBC-voted in guru His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami ("BCS") stating this at an initiation ceremony where he attempted to justify why he is needed to be accepted by the initiates as their diksa guru:
"And then you decided to accept me as your Guru. Then what is my duty as your Guru? To connect you to Srila Prabhupada."
(BCS, Initiation ceremony, ISKCON Wiesbaden, Germany, 22/7/11)
Thus, this is also effectively claiming that without such GBC-gurus acting as intermediaries, we would not be "connected" to Srila Prabhupada.
Since such an initiation by the GBC-authorised guru will officially make him the initiate's diksa guru, the initiate's spiritual relationship with Srila Prabhupada will be restricted to Srila Prabhupada being his pre-eminent siksa guru:
"Srila Prabhupada is the preeminent and compulsory siksa-guru for all vaisnavas (gurus and disciples) in the Society".
(GBC Resolution 409, 1999)
And it is claimed that the initiation by the GBC-authorised diksa guru will "connect" the initiate to Srila Prabhupada by establishing this relationship with Srila Prabhupada:
"Prabhupada is the principal shelter. [...] the guru [...] established my spiritual relationship with Srila Prabhupada."
(BCS, post-class Q&A, Bhaktivedanta Manor, 17/5/15)
But it is also admitted by the GBC that any person who joins ISKCON is automatically and immediately connected to Srila Prabhupada, so that Srila Prabhupada will become that person's siksa guru, without need for a GBC-diksa guru or any other intermediary:
"That a new devotee who follows the four regulative principles and chants sixteen rounds for the first six months should chant Srila Prabhupada's pranam mantra and worship him as Founder-Acarya of ISKCON and his siksa guru. [...] At any time after the initial six month period, and after passing the required examination, the candidate may choose his future diksha guru".
(GBC Resolutions, 71, 1992)
On the contrary, as this statement makes clear, it is only because Srila Prabhupada first automatically becomes a person's siksa guru that he or she is then even able to go on to find a GBC-authorised diksa guru. So the GBC accepts that it's not that the GBC-authorised guru connects a person to Srila Prabhupada as their siksa guru. Rather, their system requires that Srila Prabhupada is first that person's siksa guru in order to be able to connect to the GBC-authorised diksa guru!
Given the above, then according to the GBC's own explanation, there are only two possibilities:
a) Since Srila Prabhupada is already connected to the prospective initiate as his siksa guru, the GBC-authorised guru does not connect the person to Srila Prabhupada, thus serving no purpose in connecting the prospective initiate to Srila Prabhupada.
b) Since Srila Prabhupada is already connected to the prospective initiate as his siksa guru, the GBC-authorised diksa guru first breaks this relationship between the prospective initiate and Srila
Prabhupada. Only then could the GBC-authorised guru possibly connect that person to Srila Prabhupada so that Srila Prabhupada becomes that person's siksa guru.
If a) is the case, then the GBC-authorised guru is not needed for the "connection" purpose for which he claims he is required.
If b) is the case, then the GBC-authorised guru is actually a hindrance to establishing a connection to Srila Prabhupada and is not required for this purpose.
That Srila Prabhupada is only ever the siksa guru for all ISKCON members is the GBC's fabrication, invented to allow Srila Prabhupada's diksa guru position to be usurped by the GBC "diksa" gurus. However, we are herein able to defeat the need for a GBC-authorised diksa guru using their own fabricated "siksa only" system! This absurd state of affairs is summarised in the diagram above.
Therefore, the need for a GBC-authorised guru is defeated by... the GBC itself! To connect to Srila
Prabhupada, whether as siksa or diksa guru, only requires Srila Prabhupada himself. No "connecting" intermediaries are required.
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